Magazine editor charged over topless photos of Kate

THE editor of the French magazine Closer, which published topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge, has been charged with breaching privacy laws along with the photographer who took the controversial pictures.

The photographer, who has not been named, and Laurence Pieau were charged by police last month, but the news has not emerged until now.

Reports have claimed that the unnamed photographer is a freelancer with a Paris-based photographic agency.

The images, which were published in September of last year, showed the Duchess sunbathing on the balcony of Château d'Autet, Viscount Linley's home in Provence.

The photographs, which caused widespread outrage, first appeared in Closer and were later picked up by Italian gossip magazine Chi.

The Irish Daily Star also published the pictures and they later appeared in publications in Denmark and Sweden.